Trump Covers Up Lie with Another Lie

During his press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the other day, Trump repeated his tired old lie about America being the highest-taxed nation in the world. When asked by a reporter why he keeps telling it, he told another lie and showed once again that he simply doesn’t care.

SACKS: With the credibility you need to pass tax reform, why do you–

TRUMP: Some people say it differently, and they’ll say we’re the highest developed nation taxed in the world.

SACKS: And why don’t you say it that way?

TRUMP: Because a lot of people know exactly what I’m talking about it and in many cases, they think I’m right when I say the highest. As far as I’m concerned, I think we’re really essentially the highest, but if you’d like to add the “developed nation,” you can say that too. But a lot of people agree that the way I’m saying it is exactly correct.

That tells you all he needs to know. He doesn’t care if it’s true or not, only whether some unnamed people agree that it’s true. And it doesn’t matter if we’re actually the highest, only that he thinks we’re “essentially” the highest — whatever the hell that could possibly mean. But this is a matter of simple math, it’s either true or it’s not. And even his fallback position, that we’re the highest-taxed developed nation, is a lie.

The United States is, in fact, the 4th lowest taxed country in the OECD, well below the average tax burden as a percentage of GDP. As always, Trump lies and then lies to cover up those lies and does not care what the truth is. He defines “true” as “useful to me at this exact moment.”